Covid slams brakes on probe into suspicious deaths of two elderly women

BENGALURU: The Covid-19 pandemic may have played spoilsport with the investigation into the suspicious deaths of two elderly women siblings at their residence in Gopalapura on Magadi Road on Thursday. The women had no external injuries and nothing was stolen from their house. Jamuna (62) and Raani (59) were found dead on Thursday evening after their worried younger sister Prema rushed to their house when her repeated calls went unanswered.

But the cause of their deaths may remain unsolved as they were found to be Covid-19 positive due to which an autopsy was not conducted. Only the food particles collected from their home have been sent for forensic analysis to check whether they had committed suicide by mixing poison in their food or not. The preliminary investigation have revealed that no external injuries on them and even valuables, including cash and gold, were found intact, a police officer said.

Strangely, both women were found dead in two different rooms with no hint of an attack. When their bodies were shifted to Victoria Hospital, their swab samples were first collected for Covid-19 tests. They were both found to be positive for Covid19 and the hospital authorities did not conduct a postmortem as per the protocol. Besides, the doctors have not ruled out that the siblings may have died due to the disease itself -- a strange possibility, considering that both were found dead in different rooms of their house. However, that cannot be verified now because they have already been cremated.

‘Sisters didn’t interact much with anyone’

ALL that the police investigation team are now left with are food samples collected from the residence and statements from the younger sister Prema and other family members, to probe whether there was any foul play or whether they had committed suicide. “We have recorded the statements of their sister Prema and other family members,” the police officer added.

Now the only possible lead that the investigators could get is when the forensic experts confirm whether the food samples from the house were poisoned or not, and if poisoned, whether they did it themselves or someone else did it to kill them. If not poisoned, their deaths are likely to remain a mystery. Relatives and neighbours of the deceased siblings have said that the duo would not interact with anyone. Raani had psychological issues and was under treatment from NIMHANS doctors since a few years.